Quote from: Annwyn on April 04, 2009, 12:26:48 PM
"I'm not sure if many of you are familiar with this issue, but it's become very prevalent in South Africa. While it is not directly related to ->-bleeped-<-, it has bearings everywhere. It's a direct affront against women, and it essentially is leading us back into even darker ages of oppression and suppression of women."
Actually, those of us who track hate crimes are very familiar with this one, as well as the use of rape as a weapon of war.
South Africa has, unfortunately, earned the nickname "Rape Capital of the World." The so-called "corrective rape" is but one aspect of an immense problem right now, mostly the fault of alleged religious leaders, but still largely a problem with the attitudes of men (and I use that term loosely) towards women and girls. The term "corrective rape" is applied mainly to the rape of lesbians (or those assumed to be), and proven motives behind those rapes, but lesbians are hardly alone in being victimized. Men and boys who are HIV positive are encouraged by so-called religious leaders to seek out virgins (women and girls who have never had sexual intercourse), and rape them, on the assumption this will cure them.
No female is safe in South Africa from these predators. The ages of the victims range from 3 months to 89 years of age, with most being gang-raped. As well, young boys are potential victims as well, especially if they appear healthy (which leads to the assumption of an HIV negative status), especially if the boy is seen to be in any way effeminate.
In addition to the attitudes towards women and girls, there is also the issue that South Africa's criminal justice system is ill equipped to handle the shear numbers of these crimes, and the medical system has little or no training to deal with the victims in an appropriate way.
While South Africa holds the unfortunate lead in the shear numbers and per capita of victims, the problem is hardly unique to that nation. There is a growing trend towards sexual violence and exploitation against women and girls globally, particularly in parts of Africa, Eastern Europe, and the United States. In Africa, much of this is due to religious extremism and war. In Eastern Europe, well, it is simply profitable. In the United States, there appears to be what seems a confluence between religious extremism (Jimmy Carter spoke on this) and sexual slavery (covered briefly by CNN and BBC World News), particularly amongst underage girls as young as 8 years of age. In the US, it is estimated that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 underage girls currently being sold as sexual slaves. The exact numbers are unclear, due to the nature of that particular underground criminal enterprise, and the fact that official reporting is sketchy at best as a result.
Post Merge: December 12, 2009, 10:14:56 AM
Quote from: tekla on December 11, 2009, 09:08:37 PM
A woman was gang raped for having a rainbow sticker on her car, then left for dead.
That incident happened in Richmond, and it wasn't the sticker, it was the fact that she was alone in that neighborhood. It could have had any sticker on it, or no sticker on it, and the end would have been the same. This is the same town where a high school girl was gang raped at at a highschool dance for over an hour - people stood around, no one did anything. It's just Richmond.
And I meant that tongue in cheek, because I find that faux internet outrage to be great for posturing, but poor on performance. Organize an economic boycott, then something might happen. Otherwise, internet opinions and 35-50 cents gets you a phone call.
I've tracked both cases since the reports first surfaced.
In the grand scheme of things, a rapist needs no excuse for what they do. When they travel in packs, they just look for victims of opportunity, and any excuse will do. They will rape a child just as quickly as they will rape an elderly woman. It's not about sex (beyond using sex as a weapon), it's about degrading, humiliating, and breaking women and girls.
Was the lesbian woman targeted because of her being a lesbian? Probably, at least according to what has been reported, but that was just an excuse. Was the high school student targeted because she was alone, or had been drinking? Probably, but again, that was just an excuse.
In the end, the predatory animals who commit this sort of crime would have been just as happy attacking someone's 6 year old daughter, or 90 year old grandmother. Rape is about power, control, degradation, and the destruction of women and girls, nothing else. The case of the high school student who was raped says this attitude towards women and girls is widely held by the community as well, given the utter lack of action from the voyeurs who watched, the school official, and the police that night, until the attack was well over, and a young girl's life was destroyed.
